RSS - Posts July 16th, 2010 | 9 Comments
One of the best blogs on community is Martin Reed’s Community Spark. The blog is good for a few reasons: he has a depth of experience in community building and managing, his blog is educational and prescriptive, and he’s happy to share his expertise. I commented on a post that resonated with me, An open letter to companies planning online communities. In this post, Martin does a great job covering all the points for building a community as well as some of the pitfalls to avoid. Whenever I comment on a post, I always subscribe via email. That way, if the blog writer, or another commenter mentions me and that warrants a response, I can reply.
Even though Martin wrote this particular post in April 2010, 3 months ago, it still receives comments. Just yesterday, Jim added the following comment, “Communities can be a double edge sword, gives a place for customers to complain about your products.” This gave me pause. People will complain about your product whether you have a community or not. If you have products people complain about, they can air their issues on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, discussion boards, to their friends, to the person next to them on the train, etc. Just ask Apple.
On the other hand, I see two reasons why companies interested in improving their products, services and customer satisfaction should build an online community.
- You don’t have to chase down that complaint. There’s not much a company can do when a complaint is posted on someone’s Facebook wall. If the complaint is in your own community, then you know about it, and if valid, the company can take action internally so there aren’t more complaints like it.
- You have the opportunity to respond to the complaint. If one person is complaining about your product, chances are there are others out there as well. By posting that complaint in your community, it gives you the opportunity to respond with an apology, and allows you to explain how it’s being fixed, or why it’s an issue in the first place.
Now, I know there are sadly plenty of companies out there who know their products aren’t good and there are so many issues to fix, and they don’t want to hear from their customers. I also know there are many who still can’t quite grasp the fact that providing no answer is much worse than telling a customer that the issue is real and the company is working to address it (or can’t fix it and here’s why.) My advice to those folks who want to control the community message but are afraid of negative comments is, focus on your business issues first, then think about starting an online community.
For those who want to improve your products, want to hear what your customers say and want to be able to respond, but are still concerned about negative comments – do it anyway. Prepare yourself by sitting in a room with the customer support folks, the sales folks and others who have direct interaction with the customer and ask them what the complaints are. Write those down, and create real and honest responses to them. While you might not be able to capture all of the expected complaints, you’ll come close. You’ll realize that you can handle the issues and addressing them will benefit your business by making your customers realize you’re listening and responding.
Image used under Creative Commons from ronploof.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by David J. Neff, David J. Neff, Heather Strout, maggielmcg, maggielmcg and others. maggielmcg said: RT @HeatherJStrout: Friday afternoon is a great time to publish a post, right? Don't build a customer community: http://bit.ly/cXCIe5 [...]
Pingback by Tweets that mention Don’t build an online customer community « Farland Group | Blog: Voice of the Customer -- Topsy.com — July 16, 2010 @ 9:41 pm
Great posting! I think your points about why to engage your customers is right on and I have pleaded the same reasons to companies I’ve worked with. Sadly, CEOs and Presidents are so nervous to face the criticism front-on, they often refuse to turn the channel on and engage, even after they have built the backbone.
It is difficult to filter out garbage when you’re dealing with a public who is more apt to complain than compliment, but just as having a channel to engage your community allows you to mine legitimate complaints more easily and deal with them more quickly, it also allows you to see the “atta boys!” in realtime as well. Many accolades never surface to the company. Through community the wins can be celebrated. Additionally, supporting your own community, you have a CHOICE about the voice you put out there. Well trained community managers, deeply steeped in the brand, backed up by technical advisers (depending on the product) with access to a legal department will be well armed to speak with confidence and authority. Certainly many orders of magnitude better than hearsay by the disgruntled customer’s uncle Harry who also owned one.
Once customers realize their opinions are welcome, and become trained to engage their favorite brands one to one, it will become second nature, just as going online to get directions or menus and pricing are now. At that point, the established communities will be compared against all newcomers who are catching up. These newcomers will risk being seen as arcane or technically inept. On the other hand, these late adopters will have the advantage of following the formulas hard proven by the leaders.
Either way, the time to begin engagement is now.
Comment by Darin Kirschner — July 17, 2010 @ 4:09 am
@darin, thanks for the comment.
Internal evangelism can be the most difficult job for a community manager and is often the most frustrating. Both from the perspective of translating the value of the customer created content as well as distilling it into what will resonate with senior leadership.
I think engaging online for customers will become second nature for most companies very soon. As you know, many early adopters expect to engage brands on twitter, and I’m seeing the same on Facebook.
Thanks again for the comment.
Comment by Heather Strout — July 19, 2010 @ 5:21 pm
If a company is not too sure what is being said about their products, then they are really going to have a rude awakening when an online community is built, developed and managed. The centralized location is key, and will save time and effort across your company, from support to development to competitive analysis.
You are also able to leverage the early adopters of your community to assist in the management for the future. These evangelists are an invaluable resource that is at your disposal. As Mastercard says, Priceless!
Mike P
@mikepascucci
Comment by Mike Pascucci — July 19, 2010 @ 5:39 pm
Thanks Heather,
I agree that a number of companies will begin to recognize online engagement as a must have soon, but I was speaking to the consumer base. I believe we’re still a couple of years away from the public seeing “talking to their favorite brand” as a matter of course. It is incumbent on the marketing AND advertising departments of any well established brand name to have a SM group assembled, a plan in place and a voice established to speak to the buying public before this eventual shift occurs.
I see this being done using traditional media channels setting the tone of voice, (how the brand speaks about itself and to the public) driving to the online channel and then the online channel delivering on the promise of direct one to one response. The more effective they are at this, the more credible they will be at sending the community back to the traditional media for the “offers” to buy another product and go though the cycle again.
The Old Spice campaign is a good example where an online phenomenon can move the needle and get people talking, but as engaging as it was, it was still rather one sided with all of its production value minimums and the way it didn’t really drive back to say, getting a (pre-planned) coupon in a traditional channel, like the newspaper circular. If the Old Spice guy could have said, “Alyssa, I liked your comment and as a way to say thank you, I’m going to place a special coupon good for a blah blah, in xxx publication, just for you. If you or anyone else finds it, you will get a blah, blah…” and of course the “custom” coupon would be mass produced and made available all over in magazines and newspapers. People would know that it wasn’t really a “private” offer, but each that SAW the video online, would FEEL the thrill of finding it, if for even a second, and then have that replaced with the feeling they are “in” on something special. There is then a higher probability they will go use it for another Old Spice product. On the product it could then have driven back to talk to the Old Spice guy online…
Until more experimentation with 360 marketing where the consumer is pointed to the next step all along the way, SM is not going to mature past the Twitter 140 world of mini-mentions. Although WE are using Twitter as a conversation tool right now, it is another example of a “Can and String” type interaction and clunky to use at best. Facebook “like me” pages aren’t much better, but do try. Still there’s Facebook as the middleman in the way of the client/customer interaction using that pipeline…
The average citizen doesn’t understand SM the way they do a call center. Until a scalable variation of SM engagement with that agreed on voice present, fully backed and driven-to by traditional media outlets arises, the average buyer isn’t going to go online to discuss what they do and don’t like about a product with their peers beyond the confines of Facebook. And the way the private Facebook wall conversations go, the brand itself doesn’t get a seat at the table in those discussions.
Very thought provoking topic!
Comment by Darin Kirschner — July 20, 2010 @ 4:23 am
@mike, Thanks for making the valuable point about taking advantage of evangelists. I believe building the friends and family community base before publicizing a community to the broader audience is a critical community-building step, as I’m sure you do. It does help set the tone, balance possible negative comments and those folks are always ready to go to bat for your company.
@darin, I’m happy you posted your thoughts to a blog. As I was reading them, I thought, his ideas should be a post and they’re getting buried in the comments: http://dkdzyn.posterous.com/to-engage-or-not-to-engage-why-not-is-the-que
Glad you found my post thought-provoking.
Comment by Heather Strout — July 21, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
Heather, to quote O’Shaughnessy (and Willy Wonka a bit):
We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.
With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world’s great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire’s glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song’s measure
Can trample an empire down.
We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o’erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world’s worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.
We stand at the precipice again, reshaping our world. And are privileged to do so.
Thank you for the cross-link!
Comment by Darin Kirschner — July 21, 2010 @ 2:43 pm
[...] July 23, 2010 by heatherjstrout This was originally posted on Farland Group’s blog, Voice of the Customer on July 16, 2010. [...]
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